Nioh and Ninja Gaiden - Team Ninja's Next Steps

Kensei25

Member
Hey all,

So, I wanted to post some ideas and get others thoughts on how you feel Team Ninja will approach their now two major important action IP for the future---Nioh and NG. I am a massive NG fan and have now become an equally big fan of Nioh. In my opinion, Team Ninja has the two greatest action game systems even created with these two IPs. The question is how will they juggle the two moving forward into the future? Will they now focus on a Nioh sequel, given it's financial success, instead of a new Ninja Gaiden?

Here are my thoughts:

- Ninja Gaiden is too important an IP and franchise for Team Ninja to let sit inactive for too long. I am of the opinion that the next Ninja Gaiden is and has been already in some early stage of development. I would suspect that a large chunk of the Nioh dev team was shifted back to NG at some point as development of Nioh was winding down. Because of this, I still believe that a new Ninja Gaiden will be the next major action game from Team Ninja. If I was to guess, I would say a latter half of 2018 release for it.

- Nioh is a major success for TN and KT. It seems certain we will have more Nioh in the future. There are already the three major DLCs planned (can't wait). The question is does TN move onto planning a full sequel game soon? OR (and this is my opinion) is the structure of Nioh such where they can continue to release DLC expansions. I would argue this might make the most sense for Team Ninja. They can continue to work on a full new NG game and at the same time continue to release expansion packs/stages for Nioh. The foundation for Nioh is set and so strong to build off of, and would lend it self very well to continuing DLC mission/story expansions, etc., without them having to focus on developing a whole new full sequel game at this time.

I am sure we will eventually see a full sequel to Nioh in a few years time.

Thoughts?
 
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Brute

Well-Known Member
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I personally don't want a sequel to Nioh, since I feel like after the DLC William's story will be wrapped up and I don't see any good reason to continue Nioh without William. I would, however, love to see a spiritual successor to Nioh that keeps much of it's gameplay mechanics (mission structure, weapon stances, etc.) but is technically a new title that allows more freedom, unbound by staples of Nioh (such as guardian spirits, yokai pools, and every enemy being a loot pinata). For example, maybe make a ninja game where you create a custom character who is a member of the Mugen Tenshin clan and goes out on missions, that allows first-playthrough co-op with adjusted difficulty.

Ninja Gaiden I don't have too much to say. Hope to see a cross between Ninja Gaiden: Black and Ninja Gaiden 2, but with the game structure of Razor's Edge plus full campaign mission co-op. I know that Ninja Gaiden as a franchise is going nowhere, but I am worried that the next title(s) may be more spin-offs, or pushed back for many, many years in favor of other titles. Hopefully not.
 

Kensei25

Member
I largely agree with you about Nioh. I think it is actually more suited towards a series of DLCs continuing William's story like I was saying instead of a full-fledged sequel. I like your idea of a new game following in the spirit of Nioh but being more of a spiritual successor than a true sequel.

For Ninja Gaiden, I also agree----- I actually think in terms of game structure and style the model for the future has to be more Ninja Gaiden Black. Namely making NG into a more action-adventure game experience than just a pure 6-8 hour action game. Looking at the gaming landscape these days (which Team Ninja is clearly doing with how they designed Nioh), it just seems like those old-school action games are not that financially successful anymore for better or worse. Looking at the success of Souls/Bloodborne, Nioh, Zelda, etc., gamers seemingly want games of longer, varied content. Ninja Gaiden Black was a great blend of brilliant pure action hack and slash but in an adventure game format....I remember Itagaki said it was his version of Legend of Zelda. This is exactly the kind of approach I think they need to go back to with the next NG (I don't mean the action mechanics/feel of NGB but just the overall game structure).

Nioh will be their take on the Action RPG and Ninja Gaiden will be their take on the Action-Adventure game....which is another nice way to differentiate the two action IP along with the pace and mechanics of the gameplay itself.
 

Brute

Well-Known Member
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Have to disagree on that note. Nioh went for modular level structure and was certainly a success, so it can work if done right even in today's landscape. I personally hate "open-world" map structures due to the effect it has on replayability. I absolutely hated how I couldn't replay certain sections of NG1/2 without replaying the whole damn game, which includes a fair amount of sections I just don't like playing (ghost fish maze in NG1, second last chapter of NG2, etc.).
 

Kensei25

Member
Oh, I think a modular level structure is still fine and I agree preferable, but just it should be in the context of a more action-adventure type game. Ninja Gaiden Black did this very well... Good action-adventure games do not have to be open world at all.

I am just saying that in today's landscape a 6-8 hour action, hack and slash game is not going to be that successful. The next Ninja Gaiden needs to be something more than that, especially as I would suspect Team Ninja will want to attract more/new gamers to the NG franchise if possible. And also given that it would be coming out after Nioh, a huge game brimming with content, etc....
 

Sotherius

Well-Known Member
It feels weird talking about the Ninja Gaiden Series, since it is what started my Team Ninja love, and is also the main point of that until today.

Now, i think we had enough discussion about favorite and hated NG games, but to just go on the point i want to make.

Ninja Gaiden Black, is probably the most realized Ninja Gaiden game ever made, there is problems with the game, for sure, but they all boil down to being a product of its time, or something that is clearly intentional.

Ninja Gaiden 2 had so much great ideas and geniality behind it, but due to how the game went through development hell due to all that confusion and problems, and also being pretty much an incomplete product, it has a lot of problems, problems that to me makes my least favorite game in the series. and NG3RE, while my favorite, is very problematic as well, and that game is a different version of a game that was a complete mess and released less than a year before, so Fumihiko Yasuda probably didn't have much to work with neither on the time or the budget aspect once he got the hands on the project.

Now we have NiOH, NiOH not only is probably the highest budget game TN ever made so far, is also a very polished, complete game on its own (dlc foreshadowing appart), and while i have small gripes with the problem (i would preffer if they removed all side-missions that happen on a main-stage place and reduced the unique sub-missions TBH, the game gets somewhat repetitive at one point if you're not skipping side missions), you can see a lot of great things about the game and not much to complain about, the combat system is great, and fully realized, while influenced by dark souls is very different and unique on its own, it is a challenging game even after toning the difficulty down from the beta, and in general is a great game.

My point is, depending on how someone views how Ninja Gaiden should be as a series, on gameplay, level design and etc, you could possibly think like me, that they have potential to make a Ninja Gaiden game, greater than any of its predecessors, or you could believe that Ninja Gaiden will never be good without Oatmeal-san.

But i think that everyone agrees, NiOH is NiOH, and Ninja Gaiden is ninja gaiden, they shouldn't mix gameplay-wise.
 

Fiend Busa

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
It's probably going to be like Call of Duty.

Ninja Gaiden - Nioh - Ninja Gaiden - Nioh
 

HHH816

Well-Known Member
KT won't stop shoving japanese history lesson on our faces, expect ryu to be transported back in nobunaga era via time machine.
 
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